28 December 2005, 02:58
SpringA fun afternoon last week
I haven't been seeing any bigger bucks in my corn or clover patches over the past couple of weeks so last Friday afternoon I went back in some woods that are between some stands of planted pines. Shortly after getting on my stand, at around 5:20pm I saw three bucks together, which surprised me as the second rut is still going on here in SW GA. One was a spike, another an eight, and the third appeared to be a the largest in the group. The larger deer finally stepped out where I could see him briefly. Before he stepped into a thicket I had at most a second to decide if he was a shooter or not. I decided he was and popped him. He was a nice mainframe 12-pointer. He also had one kicker near a brow tine that was about an inch long, so I guess I could claim him to be a 13-pointer. One thing that was interesting was how much weight he had lost chasing does for the past month. Most of our older bucks weigh in the 200-210 area, though I did shoot one that weighed 245 a couple of years ago. Anyway, this one, along with most older bucks taken this time of year, had lost almost all of his fat and was very thin along the lower portion of his back. We figured he had lost somwhere around 25-30 pounds from where he was a month ago. I hope this one had had a very successful love life this year....
I shot him with some of my handloads in .270. Here are some pics...What do you think?
